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Memo shows Obama refused to increase security ahead of terror attacks

There's more evidence today that the attack in Benghazi was a terrorist attack, of which the government had warning. According to diplomatic cables, officers in Benghazi asked the Obama administration for more security forces for months prior to the attacks and never received a response.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - Eric Nordstrom was the officer in Benghazi asking the State Department to increase the security personnel there. Nordstrom says in a memo to a congressional committee that the State Department wanted to keep the number of such personnel "artificially low."

Nordstrom also referred to some 200 smaller attacks in the country, which included small-scale bombings and gunfights between militia groups, between June of 2011 and July of 2012. Almost fifty of those incidents were in Benghazi, suggesting the area was a hotbed of unrest.

On Wednesday, a public hearing on the events in Benghazi will be held and Nordstrom's commentary will be key.

In the weeks that followed the attacks, which happened on 9/11, evidence quickly mounted that terrorists planned and coordinated the attacks.

While the administration chalked the events up to outrage over a video produced in the US about the Prophet Mohammed, evidence quickly surfaced showing a recently released Al Qaeda operative at the scene of the events as well as information which suggested the attacks were terrorist events rather than spontaneous protest.

The claims about the video were just a smokescreen - an excuse to cover the attacks with a riot.

Despite this evidence, the Obama administration continued until late September, virtually insisting the attacks were not terrorist events.

Eventually, the administration would be forced to acknowledge what the rest of the world knew - Al Qaeda was behind the attacks.

The State Department has promised "to be as cooperative as possible" during the hearings. The statement from Victoria Nuland sounds strangely defensive, as if the Department should ever be anything less.

Naturally, the findings of the hearing could provide fodder to Obama's opponents who have criticized him as being lax on security and on taking too soft and approach with Islamic militants around the world as well as with larger states such as Iran.